Via Dom Bettinelli:

“A highly-educated woman who chooses to stay at home and not to work – that is destruction of capital. If you receive the benefit of an expensive education at society’s expense, you should not be allowed to throw away that knowledge unpunished.” – Sharon Dijksma, a leading parliamentarian of the Dutch Labour Party

Dom sums up my feelings well.

“Yeah, because raising children is a selfish exercise that provides no benefit to society. Of course, this is the problem with socialized education since the socialists are then allowed to argue that since the government paid for something, they have a right to demand something in return. Where does this end? ‘We own you forever! Hahahaha!!'”

Commenter Ian raises an interesting counterpoint.

“I must agree with the Dutch to some extent. Consider: The Dutch invest in the education of their young (via exhorbitant taxes) to ostensibly increase the quality of their workforce. If the young accept that free education, they have an obligation to repay Caesar.”

I’d argue that they no obligation whatsoever. That’s what “free” means. IIRC, Germany has something more like what Ian is referring to. Every male citizen has a nine-month obligation to either be in the military or do civil service. If goverments wish something in return for education provided free of charge, they need to make it obligatory rather than whining when they don’t get back what they put in. To propose punishing stay-at-home moms is especially petty. Commenter Christian Martin explains.

“Children who get ‘primary caregiver’ attention from someone who loves them (as opposed to a paid employee) come out smarter and more productive in study after study than children who do not.”

“Furthermore, those who stay at home are more likely to have larger families, which will provide a future income base upon which to build the financial structure to assist this politician and his cronies when they reach retirement age.”

“Stay at home parents also provide for their children many of the services that otherwise would be paid for by the state, so the stay at home mom actually lowers society’s financial burden for things like education and healthcare.”